Balta1701

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 04:56 PM) Oh come on now...what was he supposed to do? Tell the fans and Kenny "I'm not playing him. His swing is f***ed." At least by May, yes. He was clearly struggling mightily. If you thought that there was a whole lot wrong with his swing and he was struggling to get it together, put him on the bench for a week or more and let him work out the kinks. If you thought the problem was all mental, then playing him might give him a chance to work the problems out. If there's a technique issue he's seriously screwing up, then send him to practice until he fixes it.

Swing seemed ok when he went 4 for his first 14 with a HR and a double (and 4 walks) before the Appendix.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 03:34 PM) The one play that just really irked me was the moving screen on Leonard. 99% of the game that s*** wasn't called, and it was only because of the way the game was going that the refs basically thought to themselves "if he touches a guy i'm going to assume that he's picking a fight and will call a foul." Sure enough that's EXACTLY what happened...even the announcers caught onto it. That was an awful call.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 03:25 PM) I can play this game with you. Why do you believe he should have been sent to South America and made to live in a mud hut? Because children were raped and it never could have happened had he not been willing to look the other way. So why does he deserve a pass?

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 03:01 PM) No one should get a pass because they told someone more famous. So why do you give Joe Paterno a pass?

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 02:02 PM) Man, I get the pessimism given the recent dropoff, but I think 100 losses is a little off the deep end. If a good portion of our roster has career-average years, not career-best years, we're hovering around or just under .500, IMO. If Rios and Dunn repeat their years from last year, we've got a shot at 90 losses. If you just subtract Quentin, Buehrle, and Santos, the Sox lose more than 8 WAR compared to last year. For a 79 win team, losing 8 WAR puts them pretty close to 90 losses if people can't step up and replace those numbers. And at some point, you do have to factor in AJ and PK14 wearing down/stepping back too.

QUOTE (MEANS @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 01:00 PM) it's Maul who's in the fight scene, not Sidious, who is "The Phantom Menace". Yes the movie wasn't that great but I still enjoy seeing a SW film in the theater so I will go see this, in part to support the rest of the films being released in 3-D for the next 5 years. Don't even want to see the good 3, because I'm scared of what else will change.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 01:58 PM) Pearl Jam is ok, but they are no Nickelback. Urge to kill...rising...

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:55 AM) Did you happen to look at the people who served on the charity's board? If any of them actually had any inkling of the things paterno was told, and also did nothing, then they deserve to be pariahs for their lives, just like Paterno should have been.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:53 AM) And Illinois, normally a relatively progressive state, makes that situation worse with the way they handle school funding. See Savage Inequalities. Although, those gaps funding-wise have diminished somewhat, so I can't think it is entirely about funding. There have to be other factors here. I wouldn't say it's "Entirely about funding" either...there's a whole set of parental involvement and ability issues which are also directly correlated with income level that fit in there too.

Fascinating data. Achievement gap between White and Black students in school narrowing over time, but is instead replaced by a rapidly growing gap between achievement by students from high-income families and students from poor families.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 05:20 PM) This is absolutely correct, you're just arguing the wrong side of it. Because he won football games he somehow got elevated to god status by some people and that's the only reason some defend this idiot. That's not the only thing that happened here because of football. There's an old comic book saying..."With great power comes great responsibility". Because of Joe Paterno's football record, he had enormous power nationally, and anyone he chose to associate with was granted some of that power. Jerry Sandusky was able to found a charity for kids because he was Joe Paterno's assistant coach. When he was able to get high ranking people in PA society on its board of directors, he was able to do that because of Joe Paterno and Penn State's credibility. He made use of Joe Paterno's power to build up his web. He took advantage of Joe Paterno's name and credibility...and Joe Paterno never put a stop to it, beyond a meaningless "Stop bringing boys to campus" which was never paid attention to anyway.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:15 AM) I don't really see the fact that Nevermind sold more quickly as a huge point in its favor. The real question is whether 10 achieved the kind of success that it did if it weren't for Smells Like Teen Spirit already being on the radio/TV.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) Belongs? It is the #2 rock album of the 90's, probably behind Nevermind, and that is heavily influenced by the fact that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Like it or not, whenever an artist or public figure tragically dies young, suddenly their work becomes more and more acclaimed than while they were living. Imagine if Eddie Vedder had blown his brains out after Vitalogy... At least for me, the big thing about Nevermind was that it got to the charts before 10 did, not because of what the lead singer did.

Rep. Bauchus was the non-leadership guy who 60 minutes actually made a pretty strong case against, in their insider trading feature.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:41 AM) Well that is certainly the goal - or at least to stop breaking the laws surrounding that per se. Well, that might be some people's goal. Getting away with fraud at a minimal cost is clearly the goal of others involved.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:37 AM) National poll still equals irrelevant. At best, it is marketing. It is meaningless for any real purpose, during the primaries AND the general. When there are 10 states all voting on a single day, spread out across the country, with a couple big ones (Ohio, Virginia), and only a week after the previous set of races, yes it actually matters, because there's no obvious single geographic or local trend that is going to override the national one. Yeah, it's still technically 10 individual states, but if one candidate has a solid national lead going into that sort of election, then he's going to walk away with a solid win on that day.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:35 AM) Well sounds like your whole party is headed that way. I'll remember that the next time you tell us how far to the left outside the mainstream this President is.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:30 AM) And I never expected to come out this strongly in support of Mitt Romney I genuinely don't care one bit that he's changed positions. I care a lot that every position change he's had has been in the wrong direction.

(We're also getting to the part of the race where a national poll actually has a bit of relevance...since we're about 3.5 weeks from "Super Tuesday")

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:23 AM) To me IV is about their fourth best album. Anyway, this is where music disagreements come from. For example, I'd think you're nuts if you're talking about albums that changed the face of music and didn't include "Nevermind".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:04 AM) FLIP FLOP! Oh no wait, POSITION CHANGE! I never expected to see you come out this strongly in support of Kerry/Edwards.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:10 AM) Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti I mean one of these albums just does not belong in this list and its pretty obvious which one it is Yeah, that album ahead of Untitled (IV)?

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:57 AM) Anybody that has "Ten" as a top ten album, needs a lesson in music history. I wouldn't even put it in the top ten albums of the '90s. And there's the polarization on this band that triggered the thread.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:54 AM) I have no idea, but if he is a pitcher, then fine - take it the other way. There is a 0% chance he is ready to face major league hitters. Don't get me wrong, I am not against the signing, I just think the NRI to ST is pointless. If he's stealing playing time that should go to someone else I'd complain. I don't think he will be...but hey, this team has come out of ST poorly prepared for the season 2 years in a row, so maybe they will give him a lot of time.